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William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) THREE CHIL

Currency:EUR Category:Antiques / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 EUR
William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) THREE CHIL
<B>William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968)</B><BR>THREE CHILDREN IN A SUMMER LANDSCAPE<BR>oil on canvas<BR>52 by 47cm., 20.5 by 18.5in.<BR>Provenance:<BR>'Cuilim', Alleys River Road, Old Connor, Bray, house auction conducted by HOK, 19 June 1991, lot 424;<BR>Whence purchased by the parents of the present owner Leech first included children in a landscape in Twas Brillig, (1910) . This work and his subsequent beach scenes at Concarneau, Brittany, show his debt to Walter Osborne and Wilson Steer in their Walberswick paintings. In Beach Parasols on the Beach and Paper Parasols circa (1920-30), he captures children in movement with quick brushstrokes indicating legs and arms and a few fluid strokes for clothing. In particular in Beach Scene (18 x 22in.) painted circa 1922, a young girl bends protectively over a younger boy and Leech captures her in white hat and dress against dark legs similar to the figure of the girl in Three Children in a Summer Landscape. Leech didn't have children but in England he sympathetically painted his nieces and nephews and May Botterell's three children. In France he painted the three children of the New Zealand artist Sydney Lough Thompson who he had first met at the Academie Julian in 1901 and remained a lifelong friend. After Thompson married Ethel Coe in New Zealand in 1911 the couple came to Concarneau where their first daughter Annette was born in 1915, followed by Mary in 1920 and Jan their son in 1922 (1). Annette Thompson fondly remembered Leech being part of her childhood, frequently painting them at play on the beach in Concarneau or in their garden near Grasse (2) where the Thompson family rented a house for the Winter/Spring period from 1926 – 1933 (3). Leech and Thompson painted the landscape together and they nicknamed it "La Vallée de la joie." The warm red ochre of the soil and the strong sunlight filtering through the trees and bushes in the present work suggests it was painted in "Happy Valley" and judging from the age of the children to circa 1929, (1) Ethel Thompson's unpublished records. Copy, collection of the author. (2) Conversations and correspondence with Annette Thompson and author, Concarneau, France 1989–2001 Dr Denise Ferran
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